A small VAN provided EDI services for small business suppliers of
large concerns. These clients lacked the scope and technical expertise
to implement their own supplier EDI interface and thus the VAN provided
a proprietary client allowing the entry and reception of EDI transactions
from these suppliers. The proprietary client communicated
with a proprietary server via dial-up asynchronous data communication
circuits. The VAN communicated with their customers' business partners
via dial-up synchronous data communication circuits. Any client change
required re-issue and distribution of a revised client program. Skills
to update the client or server code were difficult to obtain and
changes to the either the client, server, or both were very expense,
difficult to implement with high quality, and were not scalable.
The server was provided with a combination of a proprietary server
component with annual support fees and a library of scripts.

EBDX recommended and implemented a web-based replacement. All processing
now occurs in service-based Java code removing the need for any client
code deployment. The client code and asynchronous data communication
were replaced with a standards-based web browser and simple SHTTP/TCP
communication protocols. Server-side communications were modularized
and replaced with a variety of modernized communications protocols
acceptable to the various trading partners, including SFTP, SSL
encryption over FTP, PGP encryption over FTP, and other
proprietary schemes required by specific trading partners. The server
components were supported with an Open Source database and web server
components with no annual support fees. Customer confidentiality
was enhanced through the use of encrypted communications through
all segments of communication. Support for a greater variety of clients
was provided thorough the modular implementation. Skills for updating
and enhancing the system are now easily and inexpensively obtainable.
Changes that previously required weeks to implement, test, and deploy
can now be done in hours. Data quality and consistency was enhanced
by the removal of differing clients with subtly different implementations.